This year My Friend Amy is running the ‘Meaningful Holiday Gift Idea Exchange’:
‘I thought it might be kind of fun to host a carnival where everyone shares their ideas for meaningful gifts. It could be any format--a list of ideas, sharing a story about a successful gift you gave in the past like this, a recipe, a craft, etc. The main focus would just be to provide ideas so that other people can also brainstorm.’
I love projects that focus on sharing with other bloggers and I wanted to get involved, but Jason had already posted a version of my idea for a meaningful holiday gift (check out his post, he’s thought of a really nice idea). I was at a bit of a loss for an idea I could pass onto others, until I got some inspiration by a recent post on Jane’s Gravity’s Tumblr:
‘Random thought … you know what would be the best present ever for me? If someone made me a playlist. And they put thought into it and every song on the playlist was something they knew I’d love or reminded them of me in some way.’
I would die of joy if someone made a playlist for me and that got me thinking about the idea of giving personal lists for Christmas. Making a personalised list is fast, inexpensive and a lovely way to show that you’ve been thinking about somebody. And receiving a personalised list gives you so much to explore that it’s like getting ten presents!
So, here’s my quick and dirty tutorial for making fun, personal lists this gift giving season:
1. First decide what kind of list you’re going to make
There are so many types of lists I think would be gratefully received:
* Book, music, movie and fan-fic recommendation lists
* Pintrest link lists
* Polyvore image sets/lists made of images
* Personalised quote lists
* Lists of poems to check out
* Lists of the best times you’ve spent with the recipient
* Lists of things you’d like to do with the recipient over the next year
And I’m sure you can think of many more.
2. Fill your list with stuff that’s personalised for the person whose going to get the list
The simplest thing to do is to recommend a whole bundle of random things you think someone would really like to know about.
Alternatively you could theme your list around something personal to them, for example theme a playlist around a significant event in their life, or present a list of images of their favourite animal. Are they really into Christmas romances, steam punk or WWI poets? Why not build a personal rec list themed around those subjects?
Another idea is to make a list that reflects something about you and share a little bit of yourself with the person getting the list. I always like learning more about other people.
Finally, if you know they’re desperate to get into something new, or have a specific project they want to pull together, but just don’t know where to start, because research = #omgoverwhelming, help out by providing a helping hand of a resource list.
3. Decide how you want to send the list
Get creative and write up your list on cool stationary. Add doodles. Or build it on a social media platform and send a link in a Christmassy e-card. Annotate your list with comments. Build your list out of images. Whatever you do, make it fun :D
However you decide to present your list and whatever you put in it, I’m sure it will be happily received as long as it says something personal to the person receiving it.
Make sure to drop any suggestions you have for this gift idea project in the Mr Linky at Amy's blog. comments